There are weeks I positively yearn, yes yearn, for Pierre Trudeau. This was one of them.

Mr. Trudeau understood the dynamics of this country very well, even if at times, such was his imperious manner, he outraged them. His most famous call “Who speaks for Canada?” should have been echoing this week in the minds of the premiers and their advisers, particularly those of the two most Western premiers, as they prepared for a sit-down session in Nova Scotia.

The voices within our Confederation are getting smaller, those of some premiers in particular utterly consumed by their purely local/provincial concerns, neither contributing nor seeking to contribute to common national responsibilities and aspirations. Confederation is a vital dynamic between national and provincial interests, and the leaders of each sphere owe something to both. A good premier, on this understanding, builds both nation and province. We have seen very little of these understandings, or the practice that should flow from them, in recent years, and this week was one of the very nadirs of their neglect.

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The spat over pipelines, between B.C. premier Christy Clark and her Alberta counterpart, Alison Redford, is instructive on points beyond both oil and the tube which it is hoped will transport it. It’s instructive on how some premiers see their role in the confederation, and not incidentally on Alberta’s newfound function as part-time pinata for politicians looking to hit a headline. Both Thomas Mulcair and Ontario premier Dalton McGuinty, you will recall, had their go at Alberta and its oil, well before Christy Clark started wandering to the OK corral.

The tone of Clark’s message is almost as telling as the message itself. The language and attitude evinced is that of rival and purely separate states, of parties that have no other connection with one another than simple adjacency – parties that share as little common interest or history as, say, Holland and Baffin Island. It’s genuinely hard to tell from Christy Clark’s language that she is speaking to the next-door province of a common country.

“If Alberta doesn’t decide they want to sit down and engage, the project stops. It’s as simple as that,” Clark has said. There was a further iteration Thursday, no less spiky: “If that’s [a meeting between premiers] going to cause such a big problem that there are trade barriers, there is a very easy way to solve that — no pipeline. And just yesterday at the premiers’ meeting, Clark uped the ante again by equating her say-so with any hopes for a national energy strategy.

Reuters files

Apart from really short-term politics what’s the point of this political trash talk? Premiers calling each other “silly” (Both Redford and Clark have seized on “silly” as their cudgel du jour.) is not a national dialogue. Nor does it at all acknowledge how much both provinces ( in fact many provinces) are already involved and participants in Alberta’s boom. Does Christy Clark not guess there might be some British Columbians, even now, working in Alberta? Might there not already be construction companies, mining companies, labourers, engineers, computer people, accountants, lawyers and teachers working in and receiving benefits from Alberta’s industry.

There’s also a lot flowing from Alberta to British Columbia that (ital) cannot (ital) be placed in pipeline, and principally I would guess, the present moment notwithstanding, much genuine goodwill between the citizens of both provinces.

There was a time premiers spoke and acted otherwise than we have been hearing this week, when they were less — in its pejorative shading — provincial. When they had vigorous intellectual and emotional connection to the national understanding. Loyalty to region or province was not exclusionary and total, did not combat or negate regard for common interests. One province’s success was not chosen to be seen as a red flag for the others.

It was better understood then that leadership of a province was inextricably a national endeavour as well. Peter Lougheed will be forever the model for this large idea of a Canadian Premier. No one is more forcefully “for” his province, no one more “Albertan.” Yet Mr. Lougheed, always insisted, and even now insists, that he is a Canadian first. He truly stands out: provincial leader, undoubtedly; national emblem, beyond question.

We could do with a “bit of Lougheed” right now, and fewer ostentatious showdowns. We could do with a lot more underlining of Canadian unity and our common designs, than play on the frictions and jealousies between regions and provinces.

Finally, we could very much do with a Maple-leaf glimmer every now and then showing that the premiers actually know, and more to the point, appreciate that they share a common country.

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